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Monday, July 17, 2017

Sri Lanka’s police have given scant regard to a basic right of a Tamil
journalist in Jaffna and have issued summons to him in Sinhala, a
language he is not proficient in.

In a summon dated July 12, 2017, issued at 9.39 am, Jaffna based
journalist has been summoned to be present at the Organized Crime
Division Colombo over a media event he covered of Northern Provincial
Council Member M.K. Sivajilingam.

The summon has been issued under the seal of the OIC of the Achchuveli police.

An observer pointed out that it
was highly unethical for the police to issue such summons in the Sinhala
language to a person who is not proficient in the language. He noted
that as the Tamil language is considered an official language in the
country, this summon should have been issued to the journalist in Tamil,
so he can clearly understand what it said.